The sixth anniversary of the start of the Iraq War passed with little fanfare this week. Oh sure, it was noted in a few places, but for the most part it was ignored for more modern concerns like the economy and judging whether or not Barack Obama has lost control of the financial mess. That in itself is a stunning development from a year ago when the fifth anniversary was a big media occasion, prompting a speech from Bush the Younger and reactions from the three remaining presidential aspirants. The New York Times even noted the deteriorating tenor of Bush’s Iraq anniversary speeches from 2003 through 2008:
In 2004, he appeared in the East Room of the White House with dozens of foreign diplomats and cast the war as “the inescapable calling of our generation.” By 2006, with the insurgency worsening along with ethnic and sectarian violence, he spoke for two minutes on the South Lawn and spent most of that time talking of soldiers’ sacrifices. “It’s a time to reflect,” he said.
Those Iraq speeches served as a kind of macabre anti-State of the Union for Bush the Younger, each one growing more desperate and more detached from reality.
The rapid decline of the Iraq story as a national issue has two fundamental causes. First and foremost is the fact that the rate of American casualties in Iraq has decreased dramatically. The second is that we now have a President who does not view the war as a crusade to be pursued at any cost. If those two things weren’t true, especially if Americans were still getting killed at the 2006-2007 rate, the economic news wouldn’t be able to so completely dominate the headlines. That in itself is a sign of progress, while also showing just how badly skewed this country became under Bush the Younger.
A little more than a year ago Tom Engelhardt wrote a piece at TomDispatch, “The First Sixth-Anniversary-of-the-Iraq-War Article”. He wrote it on the fifth anniversary as a way to point out that no matter what, a year later we’d still be occupying that country, losing soldiers and killing civilians. He was, of course, correct and his article has stood up remarkably well; though even at TomDispatch the latest Iraq anniversary passed relatively unnoticed. Engelhardt also laid out the eight warped fundamentals of Bush the Younger’s foreign policy (summed up as the unwavering belief that all American decisions are wise and that all problems can be solved by American arms) that lead to the Iraq War. But those beliefs, which seemed set in stone as little as a year ago, have already weathered away significantly under Barack Obama. This week’s opening to Iran, and the cautious but welcome response from them, is just the latest sign of the times.
In short, real progress has been made in the last year and the coming one promises even more. Sadly there will still be a huge, albeit significantly reduced, American military presence in Iraq next year on the seventh anniversary. And there will be a non-trivial, though presumably smaller still, number of Americans there two years from now on the eighth anniversary. This failed and unnecessary war has twisted and turned for six painful years, and while it doubtlessly has more nasty surprises left in it, it is now twisting towards a resolution instead of stretching indefinitely into the future.
Whether one chooses to view these developments as a glass half-full or a glass half-empty doesn’t change the fact that these are remarkable and welcome changes. It may not be the most sensational story, and won’t make those killed or maimed between now and the end any less dead or crippled, but it’s still deserving of comment, praise and encouragement. So, here’s to a sixth anniversary that sees the war in vastly better shape than the fifth.
